A wide variety of processes use co-current flow reactors, where a fluid or fluids flow over a solid bed of particulate materials, to provide for contact between the fluid and solid particles. In a reactor, the solid may comprise a catalytic material on which the fluid reacts to form a product. The fluid can be a liquid, vapor, or mixture of liquid and vapor, and the fluid reacts to form a liquid, vapor, or a mixture of a liquid and vapor. The processes cover a range of processes, including hydrocarbon conversion, hydrocracking and hydrotreating.
Co-current reactors with fixed beds are constructed such that the reactor allows for the fluid to flow over the catalyst bed. When the fluid is a liquid, a vapor, or liquid and vapor mixture, the fluid is usually directed to flow downward through the reactor. Multibed reactors are also frequently used, where the reactor beds are stacked over one another within a reactor shell. Typically, they are stacked with some space between the beds.
The interbed spaces are often created to provide for intermediate treatment of the process fluid, such as cooling, heating, mixing and redistribution.
In exothermic catalytic reactions, the control of fluid temperature and distribution is important. The temperature and composition of the fluids from an upper catalyst bed and from outside of reactor should be well mixed before being distributed to the lower catalyst bed. Initial poor temperature and composition distribution at top of a catalyst bed can persist or grow as the process fluids move down the reactor. Hot spots can develop and cause rapid deactivation of the catalyst and shorten the reactor operation cycle length. The space between catalyst beds is for the injection of a quench gas or liquid and for fluid mixing and distribution. In hydrocarbon processing, the quench gas is often a cool hydrogen/hydrocarbon stream. However, cooling a fluid without controlling the mixing and distribution leads to uneven reactions and uneven temperature distribution in subsequent reactor beds. And complex mixing and distribution systems takes up valuable space in a reactor chamber holding multiple catalyst beds.
There is always a desire for minimizing the space between reactor beds for introducing a quench fluid and mixing the vapor and liquid along with the quench fluid. Particularly, for existing hydroprocessing reactors, it is often desired to reduce the space between catalyst beds for increasing catalyst loading so that the reactor throughput or operating cycle time or both can be increased. Even for new reactors, it is often desired to reduce the overall size of the reactors to reduce capital expenditure and the profile of the reactor in a processing plant. Therefore, it is desirable to provide for good mixing and distribution of fluids between adjacent catalyst beds in a relatively short interbed space.
The design of reactors to overcome these limitations can save significantly on the valuable space within a reactor for maximizing catalyst loading. Further, it is often desirable to revamp existing reactors to improve processes with the same or reduced quench zone space between catalyst beds. New reactor internals that improve the utilization of the space within a reactor shell can provide significant cost savings, and allow for revamps of existing reactors to meet new operational and regulatory requirements.